I didn’t feel good about Georgia’s chances last week, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why that was so. Against Tennessee, I’m again not bullish on the Dawgs, but this time I can tell you why.

For those grousing about the Bulldogs’ lack of sacks this season, facing a bunch of RPO teams is the chief reason for that. Georgia has only four quarterback sacks all season and is 13th in the 14-team SEC in that statistical category as a result.

Florida leads the SEC in that department with 17, or 4.25. But even the Gators struggled in that regard this past Saturday facing Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs and the Vols’ RPO system. They logged one sack for eight yards. Meanwhile, Dobbs completed 16-of-32 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran the ball 17 times for 80 yards and another score as Tennessee scored 38 unanswered points in a 38-28 victory.

Florida had the top ranked defense in the country before playing Tennessee. (The Gators are now fourth, which ain’t bad.) Georgia, umm… doesn’t. Which leads me to think that unless the Dawgs can make this game into a shootout, or Tennessee starts hemorrhaging fumble turnovers, Saturday won’t be pretty.

Davin Bellamy would probably tell me to chill.

“‘Zo’ should be second in the SEC in sacks right now with three. So, yeah, sacks will come,” Bellamy said. “But I think we do a pretty good job of affecting the quarterback. I kind of think people get confused. Sacks aren’t everything. You still have to play football, and we’re doing a great job of playing our keys and striking people up front and spilling stuff to the linebackers. That’s stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.”

That’s nice, but it’s the stuff that is showing up on the stat sheet that’s making me nervous.

31 responses to “More RPO thoughts”

Tennessee has got some mojo going on right now. I watching their righteous come-back against UF last week, and Georgia’s total weak-sauce overall performance through week 4, I am expecting a similar result to last week.

I want them to, believe me. Because if they do it will most likely mean they’ve figured something out. Either they’re sticking with the same game plan and the players are just executing better, or they’re trying some different things that work better with the players we have or a combination of both. Either way, it’d be nice to see.

You know who tells you that sacks don’t matter? Teams that can’t sack the quarterback.

I have never heard anyone involved with a championship-caliber defense say that sacks don’t matter. Of course they matter. Of course Georgia wishes that it could get to the quarterback faster. Of course it’s not necessarily the end of the world if they can’t… but their troubles covering the back end of the defense only amplifies the importance of getting it done up front.

Nick Saban has pretty much always stated that he doesn’t give a rip about sacks, sack numbers, where his team stands when it comes to sank rankings, etc. He says that qb pressure means far more to him.

Sacks mean loss of yards and down…pressure means incomplete or intercepted..except in the most Georgia thing ever situations….But there is another worry here. Pressure Dobbs and he hurts you running. When you go to tackle him, he throws it. I don’t expect any sacks. I don’t expect to win, unless Chubb somehow gets the ball outside and we can run a couple of sweeps and screens.

Kirby needs to get back to what he does best. Being a rah rah lackey assistant coach. If the players have quit on him and do not respect him….that pretty much seals the deal. I’m sick of McGarity. Such a mistake passing on Tom Hermann

Players not buying in: I’ve not seeing or hearing any evidence of that. Keep in mind, there are 85 (or so) scholarship players, and 125 overall. Not everybody’s going to be on board, and not everybody’s going to agree with every decision. But so far there’s been no evidence that key players or wide swaths of players are pushing back.

Thanks, but I just feel and felt Chip Towers is just on Kirby due to not being allowed to see more of the practices, LOL. Just saying. Seth Emerson can be more reasonable on his assessments of Kirby’s team, I have to admit though.

What ever happened at 3:30 this coming Saturday Dawg fans will either be mitigated or aggravated by the game at 12 Noon between the BUGS and the U. Looking forward to Senator’s blog after the 3:30 game, LOL.

Coaching: This One Game revolves Around Coaching.
If The Dawgs Play Their Keys & Kirby Keeps Them Focused,
The Dawgs Can Win This Game. Anyway, The Dawgs Will
Score A lot Of Points & It Will Be A Fun Game To Watch.